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Shane Harwood’s career could be over due to a serious shoulder injury but the Victoria fast bowler has not given up hope of returning to state cricket next summer. Harwood, 35, needs a shoulder reconstruction, which means his 2009-10 season is over and it will be an uphill battle to regain his place in the Victoria team.It was only seven months ago that Harwood became Australia’s third oldest ODI debutant of all time when he collected 2 for 57 against South Africa in Port Elizabeth. He has always been a late starter, having made his first-class debut at 28, and he hopes his age won’t be held against him in Victoria’s future plans.However, the Bushrangers have significant depth in their fast-bowling stocks with younger men such as Clint McKay, Peter Siddle, John Hastings, Steve Gilmour and Darren Pattinson likely to lead the attack in the future. Even the other veterans Damien Wright and Dirk Nannes are younger than Harwood.”I’m still a bit optimistic I’ll get back, to be honest,” Harwood told the . “The thing that I’m positive about is I’m still bowling in the 140s. I still think that’s achievable.”I know a lot of people will put my age factor next to the reconstruction and have doubts. But if I can have a fair crack – I’ve got to do rehab until the end of the season anyway – I suppose we’ll assess it at the end of that.”Harwood has had the injury for years, but due to his age and the prospect of losing his place in a strong side, he has until now opted not to have a reconstruction. The decision has now been taken out of his hands after he aggravated the problem in a one-dayer against Tasmania earlier this month.”I had a clean-out before I went to the Champions League and battled through that while I was away,” he said. “Then the last game I felt a bit of a pain go down my back when I attempted a yorker. Then I tried a slower ball and it hurt more. I finished my spell, but the next day I felt horrible. I knew I was in trouble.”I damaged my shoulder about four years ago and I probably should have had a reconstruction then, but sort of subject to age and only having one-year contracts I avoided it. I didn’t want to take that risk. If I was 26 I would have just gone and got it fixed like Sids [Peter Siddle] and Macca [Andrew McDonald] and these guys have. So I’ve hung with it.”Harwood will face a six- to 12-month rehabilitation and he will be 36 by the time he is ready to play again. He has played 44 first-class games and has always been injury prone, which will only add to the hard decisions that he and Victoria will need to make over the next year.

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outMohammad Asif’s three wickets left New Zealand hurting•Getty Images

Two reasons emerged from the Basin Reserve for Test cricket to live long and live fruitful. Mohammad Yousuf first reminded us, in this age of Virender Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan, that there was once another way to bat in Test cricket, his patient, educated 83 enabling Pakistan to set New Zealand 405 for victory. And when the chase began, the genius of Mohammad Asif torpedoed it, in a typically cunning and persevering ten-over new-ball spell of Test virtues. At the end of it all, Pakistan stood on the brink of their first Test win in 12 matches and nearly three years, New Zealand staggering at 70 for 3.The fall of 11 wickets in prime conditions suggests another day of mediocre batting, hurtling the Test towards a swift conclusion. Perhaps it was, as Grant Elliott sparked a Pakistan collapse that saw them go from 197 for 3 to 239 all out and the New Zealand top order was ruthlessly shred apart by Asif. But for nearly two full sessions, it was also an opportunity to see some old school Test batting, from the one solid rock in Pakistan’s order, possibly on either side.Questions will always be there about Yousuf’s leadership, but for over four hours he led Pakistan as best he can: with bat in hand. The decision to send Umar in at No. 3 in the first innings was abominable, but atonement was at hand as the captain, fittingly, walked in at one-drop at a sketchy time yesterday evening. Whenever he faced, calm descended over proceedings, where elsewhere there was helter-skelter.The morning session was of a kind Pakistan can really do more with, if only for the element of serenity Yousuf’s batting instills into an easily-panicked batting order. Pace and spin was hurled at him and he remained unmoved. He was tested early morning by a fairly spirited and energetic assault on his body and head, particularly by Daryl Tuffey. Occasionally he was hurried but mostly he repelled the attack in much the manner an elephant might swat away flies around him; in any case New Zealand might have prospered from fuller lengths. By the time he was expertly riding the bounce and guiding Tuffey through gully, he had won the first battle.Daniel Vettori immediately settled into bowling maidens like he was Errol Flynn but Yousuf was unrushed, biding his time. A run of four scoreless overs was broken by a fine sweep for two, a skipped beat essentially, in the normal tempo of things. Misbah-ul-Haq was a sturdy foil, as laidback and content to build run by run, minute by minute. Gradually, over the course of a sleepy hour and a half, he established a nice rhythm, picking off runs adroitly.The real beauty of Yousuf shone through, however, after Misbah’s dismissal and the arrival of the young, fearless and very modern Umar. He watched idly as Umar played a game different to the batsmen around him. In a blaze of daring, he stamped himself all over New Zealand and in the half hour to lunch, a traditional preserve of caution, he twice smote Vettori for massive sixes, cutting and pulling him for afters. Yousuf reached a sedate fifty in the over before lunch, by which time Umar was already on 39 and Test match batting, in all its wonderful shades, was in full bloom.Soon after lunch, Umar was treating the whole thing like a net session, swinging away at Chris Martin like a scorned wife and bringing up his fifty off 32 balls. Impetuosity got him immediately after, panic crept into Pakistan and breathed life into New Zealand. And as wickets began to fall, Yousuf continued to navigate a way through, picking up only three boundaries in the afternoon session. Elliott was thrown into the mix by Vettori and Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal, in successive balls, believed him to be Glenn McGrath; for the former there may not be many more chances. Where Elliott went, others followed taking cue from his fuller lengths. Martin benefitted the most and with new ball in hand, finally trapped Yousuf, ending four hours of solitude. Iain O’Brien, the pick of the bowling, wrapped it up, and four wickets a just reward for bowling more intelligent lengths.Chasing 405, instead of 500-plus, seemed to buoy up New Zealand, to such an extent that their openers even lasted the entire first over. Not the second, however; bluntly put, Asif has worked over better batsmen than New Zealand’s top order. He was over them like a rash from the very start, working his way methodically through their chinks, with changes in length and the usual minimal cut, shining as brightly as the afternoon sun. Had Yousuf not dropped an absolute sitter to reward a fierce, fast spell from Umar Gul and Misbah not done likewise off Danish Kaneria, New Zealand would’ve been in greater strife; some old-school traits are clearly better than others.

Shane Watson has been ruled out of tours so often that even he finds it hard to believe he’s still in India with the Australian side. The squad, which won the series on Sunday, has suffered a horror run with injuries but Watson has stayed fit and been a key figure in the victory, scoring 256 runs and taking 10 wickets in the opening six games.”Normally I’d be one of the first ones sent home in the previous couple of years,” Watson said in the Courier Mail. “It’s obviously very disappointing for everyone who does get injured because I know exactly what they’re going through, but it is good to be one of the last men standing as well.”I know the things I’ve been doing over the last couple of years have given me the opportunity to be where I am now. So it’s nice to know that I’m continuing to get through cricket, and play some good cricket.”Watson received a visit from his the physiotherapist Victor Popov earlier in the trip and he sorted out a niggle that allowed him to bowl better. He has played in every game of the series, which finishes in Mumbai on Wednesday, and is proud of the team’s fighting performance.”There’s a lot of pride in everyone’s face at the moment because it is a big thing we’ve been able to achieve,” he said. “There’s no doubt it is a very special moment because there’s a lot of new faces in there and for everyone to come together the way we have is just an awesome achievement.”Individually, he has developed his batting to the point where he can now dominate bowlers. His work with the ball has also been effective and he has been handed some tough assignments at the end of the innings.”My batting has continued to develop, even better than I thought it would,” he said. “It is very satisfying for my bowling to come along in the way it has throughout the one-dayers in England and then the Champions Trophy and here. I know the work I have put in is all worth it when I can put good performances with bat and ball together throughout a couple of series in a row.”

Indian skipper MS Dhoni has been named as captain of the Test Team of the Year, as he was for the ODI team of the year. Twelve players from six countries were included in the line-up, chosen by a specially appointed selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. South African fast bowler Dale Steyn was the only player making the cut from the 2008 Test Team of the Year.Lloyd was joined on the panel by former Indian captain Anil Kumble, ex-Pakistan allrounder Mudassar Nazar, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and ex-England wicketkeeper Bob Taylor.World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)

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Mohammad Shahzad struck his maiden one-day international century to lead Afghanistan to a six-wicket victory against the Netherlands in Amstelveen and level the two-match series at 1-1. Chasing 231, Shahzad ensured that Afghanistan kept pace with the asking-rate and his innings of 110 off 112 balls eventually helped them reach the target with 20 balls to spare.The Afghanistan chase got off to a slow start – they scored 5 in the first three overs – before Noor Ali gave it some energy. He drove Mudassar Bukhari down the ground and pulled Edgar Schiferli to the midwicket boundary but his acceleration was cut short when he was trapped lbw by Bukhari for 15. Thereafter, Shahzad took over.Shahzad consistently picked out gaps in the field but was unafraid to take his chances too, driving Schiferli past mid-on before lofting him for a second boundary in the ninth over. He did not allow the bowlers to build pressure by playing very few dot balls, ensuring there was constant rotation of the strike. He reached his 50 off only 57 balls and entered the nineties by slogging Ryan ten Doeschate to the boundary. Another flick past short fine leg off ten Doeschate took Shahzad closer to his hundred and he reached the landmark with a drive down the ground. As he celebrated a wonderful innings, the small crowd gave him a rousing cheer.They were chanting his name after his century but Shahzad began to cramp – for the second time – and play was halted until Ali came out as a runner. Afghanistan needed 35 off 43 balls at this stage and Samiullah Shenwari, who was batting on 23, carted ten Doeschate over long-off to ease the pressure.Shahzad did not see Afghanistan to victory, though, for he was caught after slashing Bukhari towards third man. He had left the rest of the batsmen with only 14 to get off 30 balls, a task which Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi completed in the 47th over.Shahzad’s innings overshadowed fine performances from Eric Szwarczynski and ten Doeschate, whose contributions helped revive the Netherlands innings. Both openers had perished after scoring 3 each – Alexei Kervezee inside-edging Hasti Gul on to his stumps, while Bukhari skied a catch to mid-on. Tom de Grooth was pinned on the crease soon after, leaving the hosts precariously placed on 31 for 3.Szwarczynski scored steadily, making 65 off 84 balls, and added 113 run for the fourth wicket with ten Doeschate before he was lbw to Nowroz Mangal. Netherlands were jolted further when Mangal dismissed Bas Zuiderant for a duck and dismissed Daan van Bunge shortly afterwards to reduce Netherlands to 172 for 6. ten Doeschate, however, was firm at one end and was unlucky to miss out on his century. He remained unbeaten on 98 after having steered his side to a competitive total. Shahzad, though, ensured it wasn’t competitive enough.

As England prepare for their must-win fifth and final Ashes Test, the clamour to recall Mark Ramprakash to strengthen a failing middle-order has increased, with Geoff Miller, the national selector, refusing to rule him out of contention, while Surrey’s manager Chris Adams has described him as “the best batsman available for England”.Ramprakash, 39, has played 52 Tests for England, the last of which was in 2002. Since then, he has been in consistently sublime form for Surrey, culminating in becoming the 25th player to score 100 first-class centuries. Still fit and showing no signs of slowing down, even in his 22nd year as a cricketer, Ramprakash has again passed 1000 runs for the season and is averaging 100.75, albeit in the second division of the Championship.”I’m not ruling anybody out,” Miller told BBC Radio 5 live. “What we have to do as selectors is measure the quality of what they are doing in domestic cricket and whether they can do it internationally. There’s a lot more pressure in Test cricket, it’s a different game altogether.”The players we have in the side are good enough to be international players. It doesn’t necessarily mean, all of a sudden, that they are not good enough. We stay loyal with the players unless we feel it’s completely necessary to make those changes.”We will sit down and work out the best way forward.”England’s middle order, however, is testing the selectors’ loyalty. Contributing a paltry 16 runs for six dismissals in 17 overs at Headingley, the call for change is now deafening. Ravi Bopara made an impressive start to his career, with three hundreds in consecutive matches against West Indies earlier this year, but against Australia he has been found wanting, with 105 runs at 15.00. England’s lower-order fared better; Graeme Swann managed 168 at 33.60, while Stuart Broad cracked 168 with two fifties.Meanwhile, Ramprakash continued to make a compelling case for his reselection after hitting another hundred this week – an unbeaten 134 against Derbyshire, his 108th first-class ton. It follows his 274, made at The Oval against Leicestershire last week.”If I was an England selector picking my best side, he’d be in it,” said Surrey’s cricket manager, Chris Adams. “He is playing the best cricket of his life. He has done so for three years. I believe strongly he has been the best batsman available for England for those three years.”I know Kevin Pietersen would have something to say about that but from what I’ve seen from Mark this year he is an exceptional batsman, a batsman at the top of his game.” Adams’ comments echo those of Alec Stewart who today said Ramprakash was “the best player in the country by a mile”.Another name that will doubtless be mentioned is Marcus Trescothick, who became the first man to reach 1000 runs in the Championship this season, and has made 1330 runs at 78.30. He, however, has poured water on his possible reselection, and while his county captain, Justin Langer, believed he would be the ideal pick, he was doubtful whether it could possibly happen.”It would be a massive call [to select Trescothick],” Langer told Cricinfo, “but he is a greatplayer and you can’t believe how well he’s batting at the moment. I would not be surprised at all if he got a call asking whether he would play [at The Oval], but that would open up a big can of worms.”Would it just be a one-off?” he asked. “Would he just play Tests that weren’t overseas? Then you might get a situation where other players ask to not go on overseas tours. You’ve also got to think about the message you’re sending to the younger players out there. Tres and Ramps are sensational players, though. I can’t talk highly enough of them.”Jonathan Trott, who was in the squad for Headingley, has made 877 runs at 97.44, including three hundreds, but it seems unlikely England will opt for a Test debutant for a must-win encounter.

Bilal Shafayat, the Nottinghamshire batsman, has been awarded substantial damages and been given an unreserved apology from Australian journalist David Penberthy, who published a racist remark following Shafayat’s role as 12th man during the first Ashes Test at Cardiff.Penberthy, a former editor of Sydney’s , issued a 335-word public apology to Shafayat, after reprinting in full a splenetic text message from a friend following England’s sensational draw in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff. As Monty Panesar and James Anderson clung on in an unbeaten tenth-wicket stand, the Australians took issue with Shafayat’s repeated appearance in the middle, carrying spare sets of gloves, and Penberthy chose to publish the message he received on the website.”While I wrote the piece that the text message was clearly offensive – and had construed the piece as a self-deprecating look at the stupid behaviour of sports fans – the decision to publish this private SMS was of itself the truly stupid aspect of the article,” Penberthy said. “This is because it was not only insulting and demeaning to a decent man and sporting professional in Bilal Shafayat, and anyone else who faces ridicule on the basis of their appearance.””I was going to apologise at the time and shut the piece but I didn’t, for two reasons. The first was that I didn’t want to be accused of trying to whip the issue up to drive traffic to the website. And given that life doesn’t come with a reverse button I thought that shutting the piece was a convenient out and that I should just wear it, as shown by our publication of many comments critical of the piece,” he said.”We have had a request from Bilal Shafayat through his lawyers for usto delete the piece from the website and we have now done that. I’ve also written to him personally and use this post to say publicly that I wish that life did come with a reverse button and that I’d never published this stupid joke.”Shafayat has donated his damages to the ECB’s Chance to Shine initiative.

Rain played spoilsport in the second ODI between Bangladesh Under-19s and England U-19 at Grace Road, bringing the game to a close soon after Bangladesh posted a challenging total batting first.Bangladesh were guided primarily by opening batsman and wicketkeeper Anamul Haque, who top scored with a patient 78 off 108 balls. He shared a vital 67-run partnership with Mominul Haque, who made a 69-ball 57, to steady the Bangladesh innings.An 18-ball 41 from allrounder Alauddin Babu late in the innings propelled the Bangladeshis towards a competitive total. Rain, however, cut short hopes of getting a full game in and the match was abandoned in the fourth over of England’s reply.England lead the five-match one-day series 1-0 after winning the first ODI by 84 runs.

Michael Clarke’s first Ashes tour left him with few happy memories but he is confident he has returned as a stronger and more mature player. When Clarke visited in 2005 not only did they lose the urn but his own form was disappointing; he managed only two half-centuries and was cut from the Test team a few months later.On this trip Clarke is the team’s vice-captain and Australia’s reigning Test Player of the Year and Allan Border Medalist. Of the 16-man squad only Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee have more Test experience than Clarke, who believes he has grown significantly since 2005.”In the last four years my game has improved,” Clarke said. “I’ve hopefully matured with age and experience. I’ve played a lot of international cricket over the last four years. I guess just the experience of all different conditions will hold me in good stead for the ball swinging over here.”Clarke is one of only four men, along with Ponting, Lee and Simon Katich, who played in the losing Tests in 2005. The squad does not have the aura that the previous touring party had, when Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden were key men, but it also means there aren’t too many lingering memories of the defeat.”There’s not too many of the guys who were here in 2005, so I don’t think there’s too much of that,” Clarke said. “There’s obviously hunger because it’s a new Test series, it’s the Ashes, which you grow up as a kid looking forward to playing.”Clarke said Australia’s training regime had been “a little bit of a boot camp” since the full squad gathered last week. Their first tour match, against Sussex in Hove, begins on Wednesday and a 12-man team will be chosen as the Australians try to narrow down their likely starting line-up for the first Test.Their net sessions have been competitive, particularly with five fast bowlers and two allrounders jostling for what may only be three positions. Clarke said he didn’t know who would miss out on the tour match, which is the first of two warm-up games before the opening Test.England are also pondering their best group for the Cardiff Test and were set to name a 16-man training squad on Monday. Clarke said the Australians were excited at the possibility of facing Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, who were key players in 2005, but have been out of the Test side lately due to injury and form respectively.”Both guys are fantastic cricketers and I think England would want them both fully fit and taking part in this series,” Clarke said. “We want to beat England at their best, and I hope for their sake they’re both fully fit and ready to perform if they get that opportunity.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKevin Pietersen was at his explosive best as he lifted England to a decent total•Getty Images

England certainly like doing things the hard way, but kept their ICC World Twenty20 hopes alive with an impressive 48-run victory against Pakistan at The Oval which was so emphatic that they are through to the Super Eights. With the hosts’ hopes hanging by a thread Kevin Pietersen returned and hit a sparkling 58 off 38 balls to lift England to a competitive 185 for 5, and Pakistan never got close against a team desperate to erase embarrassing memoriesPakistan, much like England the other night, were well short of their best especially in the field where they dropped at least four catches and produced countless more sloppy pieces of groundwork. They were terribly rusty during their warm-up games and are still a long way from settling, and maybe suffered from knowing they have a second chance against Netherlands on Wednesday, but this defeat was so heavy that even a win in that game might not be enough.England, as they had to, clearly came out with a point to prove having been rightly criticised for their performance against Netherlands on Friday. Whether Pietersen’s return was a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures, or a case of his injury really improving, he produced what England dearly needed from him with one of his best Twenty20 innings.The innings included six sixes, compared with none two days ago, and Pietersen produced three off his own bat including a monstrous blow into the second tier of the pavilion and a glorious, inside-out, cover-drive off Mohammad Aamer. Pietersen was helped out by two positive innings from Luke Wright, who crunched 34 off 16 balls, and Owais Shah, as he added 66 for the third wicket with Pietersen.Pakistan had the batting fire-power to chase down the target, but never formed a solid base as England produced a disciplined display with the ball and, most importantly, in the field where they were far superior. Paul Collingwood, a reluctant captain with much pressure on his shoulders, set the pattern with a well judged running catch to remove Ahmed Shehzad off the recalled Dimitri Mascarenhas.Mascarenhas had been handed the new ball – the role he plays for Hampshire – and Collingwood rotated his pace options. Broad produced the telling over when his short-pitched tactic worked with Kamran Akmal pulling to deep midwicket and the dangerous Salman Butt top-edging to backward point.From there the innings didn’t gain any momentum as Shoaib Malik struggled to score at a run-a-ball and Shahid Afridi’s poor form continuing with a painful 12-ball 5 before he holed out off Graeme Swann. Adil Rashid bowl four overs of accurate legspin and held his nerve each time the batsmen came after him. Pakistan didn’t manage a six until the 17th over and by then the game was long gone.The atmosphere when play got underway was electric with huge support for both teams. If there had been a roof on the ground it would have come off when Malik pulled off a good catch at backward point to remove Ravi Bopara, handing debutant Aamer his first wicket.That brought Pietersen to the crease early after his return to the side following the Achilles injury that ruled him out against Netherlands and the fact he started by dealing in quick singles suggested the problem wasn’t causing too much concern. Pietersen sparked into life by slamming a waist-height no-ball down the ground and the resulting extra delivery (although not a free-hit) was launched monstrously straight into the second tier of the pavilion. It registered as 104 metres, just a fraction shorter than Chris Gayle’s huge blow yesterday against Australia.It had been Wright who brought the early impetus by taking 14 off three balls against Aamer, including England’s first six of the tournament as the ball flew over deep midwicket. He continued in the next over from Yasir Arafat, but was gifted one boundary when Umar Gul misread the spin at third man and let the ball scoot past him.Pakistan’s disciplines continued to slip when Gul delivered another no-ball, but the question was whether England could keep it going as the crucial phase of the game began with Pakistan introducing their spinners? After a brief look, both men took boundaries off Ajmal and a huge top edge by Pietersen off Afridi carried over fine leg for six. Two more sixes came in the 13th over, bowled by Aamer as the batsmen cut loose.A mini-cluster of wickets, including two in an over to the impressive Ajmal, meant England’s charge wasn’t as destructive as it could have been, but unlike against Netherlands the innings finished with a spark rather than a whimper with Mascarenhas and James Foster adding 29 in 19 balls.It’s little things like that which make the difference in Twenty20, and just 48 hours after their biggest humiliation England are into the next stage. Pakistan, meanwhile, have to win against Netherlands. How quickly things change.